USA Today: “E-Books are on the Line as Congress Considers Future of Library Funding”

From USA Today:

The Institute for Museum and Library Services, a tiny, little-known federal agency, provides grants to states that account for 30% to 50% of state library budgets, according to the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies.

For decades it has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally approved funds through grants to state libraries in all 50 states and Washington, DC, and to library, museum and archives programs. It serves 35,000 museums and 123,000 libraries across the country, according to its website.

With the expectation that Congress won’t buck Trump and fund the museum and library services institute, the future of these backbone “compassionate” library services is now under discussion across the nation, said John Chrastka, founder of EveryLibrary, a nonprofit that organizes grassroot campaigns for library funding and blocking book bans.

“We cannot possibly at the State Library save our way out of an $8 million hole,” said California State Librarian Greg Lucas. “The state’s budget isn’t in real great shape on its own, and so the badness is compounded by these actions by the federal government. It’s kind of, ‘OK, where are we going to go?’ There aren’t any easy answers to this.”

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Losing the money for e-books would be particularly hard for states, Hoboken (New Jersey) Public Library Director Jennie Pu told USA TODAY.

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California hopes to spend as much of its remaining federal funding as possible putting more e-books into its 300,000-item statewide catalog, said Lucas, the state librarian.

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Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries